Learning through volunteering: skills, knowledge, attitudes. Pat Green, Principal Lecturer, Co-ordinator,

Dispelling the Myths Student Volunteering and UoW Community-based Learning Non Accredited Volunteering

Holistic model of learning Intellectual and expressive experience for students Develops academic and theoretical learning about volunteering and community engagement Integrates academic knowledge, skills development, and learning ‘beyond the classroom’ Offers a two-way connection with communities

Holistic model of learning Empowers students to critically understand and take advantage of educational experiences Students articulate skills and experiences, and critically reflect on their own learning Integrates students into the community and promotes value change – i.e. critical citizenship Enables development of ‘skills for life’

USEM model of employability U: U:Understanding subject matter S: S: Skilful practices E: E: Efficacy beliefs M: M: Metacognition (Knight and Yorke, 2004:38)

Understanding subject matter “If you put this on your CV then everybody is going to want you because you are working with the toughest children there could possibly be, so it is really going to help with what I want to do” “Volunteering gave me the opportunity to further my basic skills of planning, organising, motivating others, team work and communication” (first year students)

Skilful practices Procedural knowledge “I find I am picking up information I didn’t know but also from me they’re picking up information that they didn’t know – it’s a two-way thing” (final year student)

Efficacy beliefs “Students come out…with a greater sense of the community…and have more of a moral kind of culture to carry on to whatever career they may have” (Voluntary organisation representative)

Metacognition “you can explore other attitudes, you can change as a person” “you kind of develop a bit more empathy…it allows you to see from their point of view”

Holistic model of learning “these are skills are good for life in general really…these skills that you can deal with people, you can talk to people, you can empathise with people, and I think you’ll always use them in every aspect of your life, no matter work or personal’

References Knight, P & Yorke, M (2004) Learning, Curriculum and Employability in Higher Education Matthews, N., Green, P., et al (2009) ‘The Role of Volunteering in Transitions from Higher Education to Work’ in Transitions from Education to Work (ed. R. Brooks) Palgrave Macmillan

Contact details: Pat Green, Principal Lecturer,